Submitting articles to article directories is one of the numerous methods used in search engine optimization. There are many free ones out there including: EzineArticles, HubPages, ArticleBase, etc. Quality article directories will only accept unique and original ariticles from writers, some accepting articles of above 400 words.
After being accepted, the articles are offered as a resource to anyone online who may need them. For publishers, the articles are used as web content. The articles come with a byline, which includes one or several links to the author’s website. The idea is to get as many sites as possible to publish the article, resulting in an increase in backlinks to the author’s website.
The advantages of article directories include:
- Can be used as a portfolio of written works. If the directory has strict submission guidelines and filters out the bad articles then you have some impressive works to show if your written work is accepted.
- Provided that the publishers abide by the rules, you will get some backlinks.
- You’re providing quality information to those who use article directories as a resource for their online research.
Challenges Faced by Authors and Advertisers
- Articles must meet a standard criteria so they must be composed with care. Spun articles will most likely be rejected. This can be time consuming.
- Plagiarism. A great number of sites accept articles that have already been published online. Worst of all, they do not check to see if it was written by the same person.
- Unlike press releases, article queues can take up to 7 days or more to be accepted in the directory.
Tips:
- Avoid submitting your best works. That way, you can spend less time on the articles and offer more content. As a result, you will have a greater number of backlinks and if someone plagiarizes your article you won’t feel half as bad.
- Join quality article directories. At least your articles will have some genuine exposure…for a while anyway.
- Report plagiarism. First, you can tell the site owner to take down your content. If they refuse or do not act on it, you can attempt to remove content of their site from appearing on the Google search engine. Some interesting actual cease and desist cases can be viewed at Chilling Effects.
Article Directories provide little benefit anymore. I actually outsource this content building task now. It helps a bit but it’s not worth the time to manually submit your work anymore. Thanks for you insight here.
I want to outsource, but I’d probably have to hire someone for a month or so. I don’t want to do this sort of time-consuming task myself but if I let someone else do it, they might screw me over and use some sort of blaster software.